General Motors’ U-turn on Opel, its European arm, on Wednesday unleashed anger and frustration in Berlin, as trade unions fretted about the scale of potential job losses.

Rainer Brüderle, the German economics minister, described GM’s behaviour as “totally unacceptable”, while Jürgen Rüttgers, state premier in Nordrhein Westfalen, said GM’s actions represented “the ugly face of turbocapitalism”.